Instead, the bomber fleets were a major factor in the general American war effort, helping to reduce the enemy fighting power, especially in Japan where they destroyed the largest cities by shifting to area incendiary bombing tactics. For the first few years, the strongest voice at ACTS against the bomber doctrine was Captain (later General) George C. Kenney who called for the use of air power to attack enemy fighting units on the ground. [] Hansell won the war". They failed. Malcolm Gladwell has in his hands a very good story in The Bomber Mafia. Key ideas from The Bomber Mafia. The Bomber Mafia A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War By: Malcolm Gladwell Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins 4.7 (8,338 ratings) Try for $0.00 Pick 1 title (2 titles for Prime members) from our collection of bestsellers and new releases. The print has its merits of being able to take your time to know the history of the "bomber mafia." It reviews the capabilities that todays military has in terms of bombing and notes that the Bomber Mafias philosophy of precision bombing won out in the end. Malcolm Gladwell - The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War Audiobook. Hansell was a junior member of the Bomber Mafia, a group that put its faith in the new Norden precision bombsight. And was engrossed once again. The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War is a 2021 book by Malcolm Gladwell that examines the US Bomber Mafia of World War II, which advocated precision aerial bombing as a means to win a war. Through Ashley Gutermuth's many military moves, she has learned to flip circumstances around to find the humor, and the President Joe Biden awarded the commander-in-chief trophy to the Air Force Academy for winning football games against its At the end of the day, "Minecraft Legends" has some compelling elements that unfortunately don't feel fleshed out. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox. The second is that Japanese politicians and historians actually thanked LeMay for the campaign after the war. In The Bombing plane Mafia, he hones in on a specific period of history. A third hit the bombardier in the head and shoulder. For customer support, contact help@supportingcast.fm. Supported apps include: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocketcasts, Podcast Addict, Castbox, BeyondPod, Downcast, PlayerFM, Breaker, and RadioPublic. The Listeners Guide features additional commentary from Malcolm Gladwell, reflections on the production from producers and engineers, and archival photos from the period. ASIN: B08V1N49ZN Edition language: English . And because we dont know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. Malcolm Gladwell and "The Bomber Mafia". InThe Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, Malcolm Gladwell, author ofNew York Timesbestsellers includingTalking to Strangersand host of the podcastRevisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. Part one on the extraordinary life of the Air Force General Curtis LeMay. https://ipaudio.club/wp-content/uploads/GOLN/Bomber%20Mafia%20(Malcolm%20Gladwell)/01.mp3, https://ipaudio.club/wp-content/uploads/GOLN/Bomber%20Mafia%20(Malcolm%20Gladwell)/02.mp3, https://ipaudio.club/wp-content/uploads/GOLN/Bomber%20Mafia%20(Malcolm%20Gladwell)/03.mp3, https://ipaudio.club/wp-content/uploads/GOLN/Bomber%20Mafia%20(Malcolm%20Gladwell)/04.mp3, https://ipaudio.club/wp-content/uploads/GOLN/Bomber%20Mafia%20(Malcolm%20Gladwell)/05.mp3, Terry Pratchett The Colour of Magic Audiobook, Catherine Ryan Howard The Liars Girl Audiobook, James Islington The Shadow Of What Was Lost Audiobook, Gary Taubes The Case for Keto Audiobook, Ken Follett A Place Called Freedom Audiobook. On page 127 of the hard copy, Gladwell got it backwards when he stated heavily laden B-29s headed for a Japan bombing run had to wait for a tailwind to be able to take off. Restricted in scope, short in play time, I located this believed prompting. LeMay believed that the campaign was so effective that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 werent even necessary, because his campaign already had made clear the price if Japan declined to surrender. ", He released a couple chapters from this book as episodes of Revisionist History. The audiobook brings to life the stories. A sixth hit the number 3 engine, setting it on fire. [13], Other opposition was more subtle. Andrews staffed the command with like-minded officers such as Henry H. "Hap" Arnold. Gladwell describes the challenges that both faced. In that sense, Gladwell wrote that Hansell "won the war."[21][22]. The theoretical discussions they had back at Maxwell Field didnt properly account for weather, enemy fire, and mass-produced bomb sights. The airmen believed that the tool would allow forces to focus on taking out specific targets that could cripple the enemys production lines rather than engaging in the kind of indiscriminate bombing that the Germans did on London and the Allied forces would against Dresden. Gladwell argues that LeMays savage firebombing campaign succeeded, and that, combined with the two atomic bombs that followed, shortened the war. By subscribing to Pushkin+ or purchasing an audiobook, you are agreeing to be bound by Pushkins Terms of Service and Privacy Policies and to be added to Pushkins mailing list. [1], The term "Bomber Mafia" came from the sometimes bitter debates between United States Army staff and Air Corps men who observed, and argued with, the insistence by instructors and students of the ACTS that heavy bombers were the new primary weapon of war, and that a separate air arm was required to command them. The book is adapted from a series of podcasts Gladwell created for his show . As long as youre comfortable with the numbers of people who were killed during the air attacks described throughout the book. One historian tells the author that Hansell was not the kind of man who was willing to kill hundreds of thousands of people. [14] Because of his lower rank, he was in no position to challenge the bomber mafia, and instead strove to work around their restrictions on pursuit aircraft. I immediately thought, Oh yeah? They believed that bombing strategic targets made sense, and bombing population centers didnt. First, the U.S. command didnt really seem to understand what LeMays campaign was doing to Japan. This page is not available in other languages. The words "Bomber Mafia" refer to a group of American pilots in the 1930s stationed at what was then called Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama. Yes. [18][19][20] James McConnachie of The Times stated "for a book that is not a war story, this one is brilliantly, brilliantly told". Kurt Vonneguts seminal publication Slaughterhouse five took the allied battle (pointless) of Dresden with the POV of Prisioners of war. If you have actually ever attempted to toss a can from a moving automobile into a whip can you would understand the math/physics behind it. [2] Fleets of heavy bombers were not able to achieve victory without the cooperation of the Army and Navy, and required the protection of long-range fighters for deep penetration missions. Nixon tried the LeMay strategy in North Vietnam, and we all know how that ended. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Blandthrowing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. [3], This theory was first espoused by Italian General Giulio Douhet, though his ideas included the terror bombing of population centers that the American theorists eschewed. Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. I enjoyed this short book thoroughly, and would have been happy if it had been twice as long. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Its a history of the dueling philosophies regarding bombing that existed in the US military during World War II. Purchase The Bomber Mafia and receive the exclusive Bomber Mafia Listeners Guide a visual document of the making of The Bomber Mafia. Emergency workers and local residents battled to clear debris and extinguish fires in the Ukrainian city of Uman after Two U.S. army helicopters collided and crashed Thursday in Alaska while returning from a training flight, killing three soldiers 89-year-old Max Hancock was an U.S. airman stationed outside of Oxford, England, in 1953. [4] He devoted four episodes of the fifth season of Revisionist History to air power in World War II, and stated the audiobook served as an expansion of material from the podcast. The book is adapted from a series of podcasts Gladwell created for his show Revisionist History. Ask the Author. And then they did the same thing to another city. Since I had the ability to concentrate on guide as a historical message, I had much more success following along. We could have surrounded their ports, mined their harbors, Japan has no energy natural resources, that is why they invaded Maylaysia and the Borneo oil fields. The book follows the Bomber Mafia, especially Major General Haywood S. Hansell, and the development of a high-altitude precision aerial bombardment strategy in World War II as a means to limit casualties. The pilot kept flying.. There is even a score and plenty of effective sound effects. The British strategy was known as area bombing, which amounted to creating as much damage as possible over a wide area. He was hardly a theorist, and especially not someone out to make war more humane. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we dont know. While one is a celebrated hero, the other was an idealist whose concepts allowed him to be sidelined in the annals of background. Unfortunately for its believers, the Norden bombsight was a brilliant idea that didnt quite work in practice, mostly because the technology did not yet exist to do the additional computations that real-world issues required to move beyond the theoretical ones that worked so well in the lab. The book description sounds exactly like the podcast. Napalm is a gel that when it explodes, blows large clumps of fiery hot substance that sticks to every substance and burns brightly for several minutes. I knew the Americans went down two atomic weapons to shorten the battle as well as bring Japan to its knees as well as accept surrender to conserve countless lives needed to get into those islands. Later, Saville successfully implemented his ideas in the Mediterranean Theater. The villain, or at least loser in this account, is another Air Force general, Haywood Hansell, who had tried to win the war in the Pacific through the precision-bombing of Japan. [8] In that regard, this was at odds with Britain's Royal Air Force' doctrine of area bombing under the command of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris. Maybe so. There is nothing 'inappropriate' in the book, it is simply not about battles and actions. [1][2][3] In 2016, Gladwell started Revisionist History, a history-focused podcast that "re-examines something from the past an event, a person, an idea, even a song and asks whether we got it right the first time". Malcolm Gladwells The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War is a kind of love song to the United States Air Force, which is surprising, because it is the least romantic of our armed services, with leaders who focus on technology, not tradition. [9], When the United States entered World War II, the Bomber Mafia's doctrine proved of little military use and costly in implementation with the realities of current technology under real-world combat conditions. This was a ripoff and should have just been a podcast. In Chapters 4 and 5, Gladwell provides background about Hansell and LeMay, and outlines the Americans bombing mission on Germanys ball-bearing factories, led by Hansell with LeMay a participant. Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis, The ultimate resource for assignments, engaging lessons, and lively book discussions. Block buster films have actually made World War II seem even more actual and technically skilled in all things armed forces yet this book was needed for me to grasp the relevance of war in the 1940s. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy. The Listeners Guide is only available from Pushkin Industries when you buy The Bomber Mafia. This page was last edited on 16 June 2022, at 01:38. We have updated our Privacy Policy (Gladwell partly excuses this notorious phrase, saying it was likely the work of a ghostwriter.) I have read up on LeMay, he did in fact tout a theory that killing civilians by carpet bombing was a winning strategy, that it would destroy the morale of the citizenry. In The Bombing plane Mafia, he hones in on a specific period of history. Almost 100 B-24 planes were lost with only minimal damage done to the ball bearing plant. After the war, the 20 years of foundational work by the bomber mafia resulted in the separation of the United States Air Force from the Army to become an independent military arm. Japan was largely self-sufficient as far as food is concerned, they would have become uncomfortable but they would not have starved to death. [22] Writing for the Los Angeles Review of Books, professors David Fedman and Cary Karacas state "[a]s a piece of writing, The Bomber Mafia is engaging. I seriously doubt Russias entry into the war was a factor. Once you are in a way, are some forms of bombing more humane than others? The brief Conclusion looks at the bigger picture this story tells about the use of technology. The B-29s were capable of making the 3,000+ mile round trip from Guam to Japan. Do you prefer this format. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. The print has its merits of being able to take your time to know the history of . Guide begins with a very genuine trouble. Why must they act like peas? The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effects predicts sociologists and sports psychologists would say the same for his . The audiobook is an experience in itself, complete with sound results, music, and old interviews from the men he profiles (and also several of their battles survivors). We won the war when we did because our aircraft carriers were luckily out of Pearl Harbor when it was invaded, we were never going to lose but our task would have become daunting if we had to re-build our aircraft carrier fleet in my opinion Germany invaded Russia for its oil, oil was and is the commodity needed for modern militaries, Your email address will not be published. [11] The book examines Hansell's replacement by Major General Curtis LeMay,[12] who implemented a series of tactical changes such as ordering bombing at a dramatically lower altitude to avoid the jet stream, removal of most of the bombers' defensive weaponry to increase bomb payload and wholesale nighttime fire bombing with incendiaries like napalm to devastate many of the population centers of Japan. Why were the North Vietnamese such a powerful force, because they were colonized for generations and their cities were being carpet bombed by B52s from 40,000, if you kill someones family you should prepare to face their relatives. Required fields are marked *. Many years later a related term "Fighter Mafia" described those within the Air Force that favored lightweight fighters good at dog-fighting instead of heavy missile-firing fighters. [2] Precision in bombing was not achieved until long-range fighter escorts became available and air superiority was achieved, as opponents had warned. He bled to death. USAAC Fighter Projects officer Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey appreciated that a large bomber fleet would be able to perform many military tasks, not just strategic bombing, and felt that the force's doctrine should remain flexible to meet any demand. Malcolm Gladwell's extraordinary new book, "The Bomber Mafia," tells the story of a group of pilots who met on a muggy airbase in central Alabama and hatched a plan to revolutionize warfare. WATCH SEGMENT. [7], To effect this doctrine, the United States Army Air Corps would need to expend the majority of its resources in amassing a fleet of self-defending heavy bombers, and in the training and maintenance of a great many airmen to fill aircrew and ground crew positions. On both sides. Please simply click here to enter your email address (no additional purchase required) and you will receive the Listeners Guide. As a compromise first step, the General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force was established within the Army Air Corps in 1935, commanded by General Frank M. Andrews, a strategic bombing advocate. Your email address will not be published. As an expert in the use of air units to aid artillery and infantry, Gordon P. Saville held to the concept of tactical air power through his time as ACTS instructor from 1934 to 1936. Upon release, The Bomber Mafia was met with mixed reviews, with reviewers praising its audiobook version but criticizing the book for a lack of accuracy and for being light on details. Kennedy stated there were "gaps in [Gladwell's] account", and cites the RAF Bomber Command's attempt at careful bombing as an example. Weve all be taught that it was the two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki that caused the Japanese to surrender. Because of a review from one of the Goodread friends, I decided to take on the audiobook, instead of the print/e-book version. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine for over 25 years and was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 Most Influential People. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Here is Gladwells stunning description of a United States Air Force B-17 bomber being cut up on a run over Germany: One 20-millimeter cannon shell penetrated the right side of the airplane and exploded beneath the pilot, cutting one of the gunners in the leg. Just how wrong was I, however in a blink of an eye I had a book I could not take down. [19] Publishers Weekly stated "this history feels more tossed off than fully fledged", though Gladwell "provide[d] plenty of colorful details and pose[d] intriguing questions about the morality of warfare". This notion that killing someones family and friends will lead them to surrender is bunk, all it does is motivate people to hate you forever And the Japanese Government of the post war era was a puppet of our military, the notion that a proud people would hail a man who rained fiery death indiscriminately from the sky because they figured maybe less died this way is specious drivel in my opinion. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. The American militarys precise new way of information-based warfare so far has been tested only in relatively small and short bombing campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, the gunboat wars of our time. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); June 29, 2021 9 comments. The unexpected hero of Gladwells story is Curtis LeMay yes, that one, the general who firebombed Tokyo and dozens of other Japanese cities and then, decades later, supposedly advocated bombing the Vietnamese back into the Stone Age. Developed over the years 19261929 at Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) at Langley Field in Virginia, a forward-looking doctrine of daylight precision bombing was promulgated by Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell who advocated a greatly expanded role for the bomber force. Bombing of Tokyo on March 10, 1945 with Operation Meetinghouse, "You Know Your History? The bomber mafia succeeded in their goal to have extensive bomber fleets in the US military, but they failed in their wish to achieve pinpoint targeting precision during World War II. An exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. This was all in one plane. Most of his books deal with research into the social sciences, particularly sociology and psychology and have been best sellers. The book concludes that "LeMay won the battle. It's true: The audiobook breaks conventional audiobook standards, as this is a well-produced audio experience. By stream ", "Warden and the Air Corps Tactical School", "Malcolm Gladwell's Fantasy of War From the Air", "Malcolm Gladwell's The Bomber Mafia is misleading history-lite", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomber_Mafia&oldid=1093347884, 1960s disestablishments in the United States, Organizations disestablished in the 1960s, 20th-century history of the United States Air Force, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Is this book appropriate for an 11-year old that reads a lot WW II history and fiction books? Yes. son. Malcolm Gladwells new book and audiobook The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation and the Longest Night of the Second World War digs deep into one of the lesser-known rivalries of the war, the one between Brig. [1] Hansell concurred that both the theorists and the authors of the AWPD-1 war plan (of which he was both) made a serious mistake in neglecting long-range fighter escort in their ideas. Do Not Steal My Personal Information. What about the sailor whose ship is torpedoed and who hangs from debris in the water with no chance of rescue? WATCH SEGMENT. He released a couple chapters from this book as episodes of Revisionist History. But it was news to me. (For the Japanese the atom bomb was just a more effective way to bomb them, some watching they were used to.) Why? The United States had already completely cut off Japans oil supplies and pipelines by the middle of 1944/beginning of 1945, and decimated their navy. [16], The book was met with mixed reviews upon release, with four mixed reviews, one positive review, three pan reviews, and two rave reviews as of November14, 2021[update] according to review aggregator Book Marks. Many of my academic friends have warned me to take his conclusions with at least a few grains of salt. [23], A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews stated Gladwell "[delivered] a fairly flattering portrait of LeMay". I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell. [6] Though unproven, the major attraction of this sort of strategic bombing doctrine was that a war was expected to be won relatively quickly, with minimal casualties, and that grinding, static trench warfare as seen in World War I could be avoided. Some apps may require users to copy their URL and paste it directly into the app. The State of Journalism on World Press Freedom Day. Much of the book concerns the technical and practical aspect. Hansell was not the moral opposite of LeMay. Gladwell conceived this project as an audiobook and previously made much of it available as a podcast, so the production values for the audio version are impressive. T H E B O M B E R M A FI A. l i ste n er's g u i de ma lc o l m g l a d w e l l Thank you for purchasing Malcolm Gladwell's The Bomber Mafia.. [8], Although flawed and tested only under optimal conditions, the doctrine (originally known as the "industrial web theory")[9] became the primary airpower strategy of the United States in the planning for World War II. Before they started invading China and Southeast Asia, Japan got most of its oil from the United States, which they knew was going to end when we realized what was going on. As a work of history, it borders on reckless". We now live in a world where its not too much of an exaggeration to say that a bomber flying at 50,000 feet can tickle a targets nose hairs with the advanced systems we now have in place. LeMay has taken over from Hansell and used napalm, resulting in markedly more success but also much greater destruction and killing of civilians. He flew in at 5,000 feet elevation, which was under the jet stream, and under the altitude at which Japanese antiaircraft weapons were effective. From what Ive read, dropping the atomic bombs was more a signal to Russia of our strength than a strategy to defeat Japan, which was pretty much defeated already. Everyone, generals included, hated the mass . During World War II, some of these pilots became major decision makers. A fourth shell hit the cockpit, taking out the planes hydraulic system. The author of the book is Malcolm Gladwell, an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. It certainly is arguable that others, like Gen. George C. Marshall, were just as important, but Gladwell simply tosses out the claim about Stimson and hurries on. Scientists at Harvard repurposed a failed Dupont Chemical product and refined it into napalm, the most brutal bombing tool devised before the atomic bomb and one particularly suited to cause maximum damage to the wood-and-paper houses of Japan.